Complete Syllabus

AP English: Language and Composition

Ms. Jane Kennedy

Woodruff High School

jkennedy@Spartanburg4.org

 

 

First Quarter

 

 

August                                    Course Introduction: Significance of Language

                                                from Look Homeward Angel (Thomas Wolfe)

                                                from Doors of Perception  ( Aldous Huxley)

 

 

August                                    Grounds of the Argument: Everything is an Argument

The Power of Myth and our Value System

 

 

Aug/Sept.                                Definition of Rhetoric and the Fine Five

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha: Summer Reading

Story of the Land Device (essay)

Syntax: Form follows Function (essay)

 

 

September                              Personal Narrative: 

 

from “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”

          “We’re Poor” (Floyd Dell)

           “Salvation” (Langston Hughes)

           “The Sky is Grey” (Ernest Gaines)

 

In-class: Forrester’s “My Wood” or Gary Soto Prompt

 

 

September                              Tone: “Deer Hunting 1” and “Deer Hunting 2”

 

 

October                                   Nine Weeks Exam: Paddy Clarke Prompt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Quarter

 

 

 

October                                   The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)

                                                Nabokov on Franz Kafka

 

                                                5 Arguments/5 Approaches/5 Theses

                                                           

                                                            Archetypal

                                                            Existential

                                                            Formalist

                                                            Psychological

                                                            Sociological   

October                                               Novel as Grounds of Argument

Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain            

                                                           

             

October                                               Inman’s Journey in Cold Mountain

                                                            The Departure (Campbell)

 

                                                            2 Independent Studies : Choice of Topic (essay)

                                                                        Chapter Analysis/Rhetorical Strategies

 

 October/Nov.                                          Inman’s Journey

                                                            Trials and /Victories (Campbell)

 

November                                           Inman’s Journey

Return with the Boon (Campbell)

 

Argument: Redemption after death (Buchanan)

            Vs. Redemption before death (Campbell)

 

Cold Mountain Visual Presentation

 

AP Multiple Choice Practice/Charting Results

 

 

November                                           In-class: Buchanan vs. Campbell       

                                                            In-class: Ellen Goodman’s “The Company Man”                         

 

 

December                                         AP Test Simulation  - 3 in-classes

                                                           50 Multiple Choice 

 Third Quarter

 

January                                               “The Work-Through” Essay

                                                            Practice: Thomas Carlyle’s essay “Work”

 

                                                            In-class: Letter on his mother’s death (Shaw)

 

                                                            Political Language and Discourse           

                                                            Colonialism and Political Documents

 

 

                                                            In-class: Spencer’s Eulogy on Lady Diana or

                                                                Bronwen Dickey’s Tribute to James Dickey

                                                           

                                                            Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)

                                                            Leopold and Belgium Colonialism

                                                            Conrad vs. Marlow

 

January                                               Chapter 1: Absurdity:

Smallness of man vs. Immensity of Universe

                                                            Foreshadowing Chart

                                                            Sarcasm

                                                            Personification of Jungle

                                                            Biblical, historical, and mythological allusions

                                                            Perception of Victorian Woman

 

                                                            Chapter 2: Absurdity of Characters

                                                            Myth of Sysyphus

 

In-class: Fault Lines: Personal Narrative

 

Jan./Feb                                              Chapter 3: Absurdity of Kurtz

                                                            Kurtz as a Hollow Man

 

                                                            Essay Topics: Absurdity in the novel;

                                                            Light vs. Dark: A Study of Language

 

 

February                                             “The Hollow Men” with Sustained Allusion

                                                            Significance of Organization/Language

                                                            In class: Allusion Enhances Meaning of a Work

 

                                                “A Modest Proposal”: The Classical Argument

                                                            A Study  in Satire

                                                            Sample Classical Argument

                                                           

February                                                         Persuasive Techniques: Rhetorical modes

Personal Narration

                                                                        Description

                                                                        Example

                                                                        Comparison/Contrast

                                                                        Division/Classification

                                                                        Causal Analysis

 

                                                                       

 

Feb./March                                         Toulmin Modern Argument

                                                            Argument Terminology

 

 

 

Fourth Quarter

 

 

March                                                 Inherit the Wind: A Study in Argument

                                                            Purple Patch; Word Play

 

                                                            Clinton Speech

                                                             AP Terms

 

March                                                 In-class: Coca Cola Argument

 

April                                                    Return of the Native (or Frankenstein)

                                                            Heath as an agent of fate

 

                                                            Man vs. Environment

                                                            The Tangled Web

                                                            Author’s Style

                                                            Reading in Depth

                                                            Vocabulary

 

                       

April                                                    In-class: Comparison/Contrast

                                                            Marriage Proposals (Dickens)

                                                            Galapagos Islands                                                    

 

 

May                                                    AP 5 Day Review Plan

 

Hamlet: Imagery            

 

Final Exam: One of three essay topics